Innovative method to measure the extent of the stable phase-space region of proton synchrotrons

The advent of circular accelerators based on superconducting magnets has revolutionized the field of beam dynamics, with particle motion turning from linear to nonlinear due to unavoidable high-order field errors generated by the ring magnets. Nonlinear dynamics was already well mastered, e.g., in the close field of celestial mechanics as similar problems had been considered and successfully tackled. Hence, several results were available to aid comprehension of the behavior of charged particle beams under the influence of nonlinear forces. Here, we discuss how concepts derived from the theory of dynamical systems, linked with the fundamental Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser theory and Nekhoroshev theorem, can be successfully applied to the analysis of nonlinear motion of charged particles in a circular accelerator. Based on these ideas, an innovative method to measure the extent of the phase-space region within which bounded motion occurs is presented, which has been successfully tested for the first time at the CERN LHC.